What Holly Said
by kris x
Summary: Love is watching someone die... so who's gonna watch you die?


A/N : I don't own Artemis Fowl or the Death Cab For Cutie song, "What Sarah Said". Though I reeeeeeeaally wish I did. Buuuuuut I don't. : This is a futuristic piece, like, what would happen if something happened to Holly during the run of the PI business, and what would happen if there was some A/H going on ;. It's really quite sad, actually.

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Artemis paced nervously up and down the length of the stark white room. A television, suspended from the ceiling in a corner, rumbled low and nondescript, as if it knew that the room's occupants were entirely focused away from its screen. The smell in the room was almost unbearable; the air was choked with the scent of 409 and medical supplies. Wringing his hands, Artemis leaned gently against a vending machine, wracking his brain for memories of the small figure lying attached to myriad machines in the room down the hall. He had a desperate desire to remember every word she'd said to him since they'd met, but his panic put a mental block on anything else.

It was tough to see her in such a state. Lying weak and quiet in a hospital bed miles away from where she'd been born, miles above Haven. Beside that bed was where Artemis had sat for hours, watching each peak on the small LCD screen steal her away from him a little more. He wished with all his might that her injuries could be mended, that her breath would return, that she would rise from whatever limbo she was stuck in and be the same as before. But the five gunshots she'd sustained from an art thief presented circumstances so grim, he knew it couldn't happen. But that was Holly. Even in the PI business, she was prepared to die for her work.

Still… as Artemis' breath caught in his throat and his eyes grew weary from holding back tears, he realized this was okay. She was something truthful, more truth than he'd ever had. Artemis knew he'd rather lose her than to have never lain beside her at all. And how he wished they could lie together again… like nothing was wrong, and everything would be okay. But it was over, and he knew it.

His mind swayed to a singular memory, a spring day spent in Fowl Manor's extensive gardens. Artemis had never deigned to explore this part of his home before ( being too concerned with his extensive computer lab to stray outdoors ), and it had seemed fitting that he should first view the beautifully manicured gardens with something equally as beautiful- Holly.

_Artemis felt at ease. He was drifting along a cobblestone path, surrounded by beautiful flowers on all sides, with Holly clinging to his side. It felt… natural. Like right in that moment he had everything he'd ever needed._

_It was a few blissfully silent moments before Holly's hand began to shake and she started to looked increasingly pained._

"_Holly, what's… are you feeling alright?"_

_Holly responded by promptly bursting into tears. This was a rare occurrence, and obviously signaled that something had gone drastically awry._

_Artemis sank to the ground, pulling Holly with him, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder in panic._

"_Holly, what's wrong, are you okay? Holly, Holly, talk to me…,"_

_Holly took a moment for her rush of sobs to cease, but when she regained the power to speak, she began to sniffle._

"_It's just…I just, well, I think about things too much, I guess, but if we stay together like this, and maybe get… married, and live together for the rest of our lives… then eventually, one of us is going to have to watch the other … die."_

_Artemis sat, dumbstruck, and pulled Holly to his shoulder._

"_But that's love, isn't it?"_

_Artemis was, for once, confused._

"_What is?"_

"_Well, love is. Watching someone die. Not in the morbid sense, in the sense that… you want to be there. Love is watching someone die…,"_

The clicking of heels against the ground caused every head in the room to lift, to see if it was the nurse bearing news. A tall, lithe woman in scrubs looked around before spotting Artemis and motioning to him. He followed in trepidation, his head screaming that he wasn't ready for what was coming.

The door swung open, and he saw exactly what he'd expected to see; the peaks on the LCD descending rapidly, almost to the point of flat-lining. He rushed to the side of the bed, where an ashen Holly was laid, breathing shallowly with her eyes closed. Artemis rushed past the nurse, not even hearing the words she was saying. He slipped his fingers through Holly's, and as a flat line coursed across the LCD screen, he began to cry, uncaring of anything other than the figure before him that he'd just lost.

"_Love is watching someone die… so who's gonna watch you die?"_

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